A word on personal attacks

[armthehomeless]

I would like to touch on the increasing amount of personal attacks and negativity that has 'infected' our forum of late.

It is a growing concern of mine and the Forum Staff, that some members think that it is ok to inflict personal attacks on other members if they don't like what they are saying. This goes against everything that built this forum and is resulting in a massive culture change. OzMPSclub's aim is to be a friendly, resourceful and understanding forum.

I'm not saying people can't argue, because that would be unreasonable. With nearly 1,000 members on this forum, there are always going to be people that disagree with each other. We encourage professional debates and discussions on topics, provided they stay professional. We won't intervene with heated discussions provided that both sides stay on topic and no personal attacks occur.

Reading through the survey feedback it is nearly a 50/50 split as to what level of moderation you want. Half of you want little involvement from us, while the other half want us to keep a close eye on discussions to ensure they stay on topic.

One thing we will not compromise on any more are personal attacks. We have taken a back seat approach in the past, but this has stopped as of today.

Personal attacks against another member will no longer be tolerated.

The OzMPSclub forum rules state:

Be respectful of others at all times

The purpose of the forum is to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas. Occasionally, there will be conflicts that arise when people voice opinions. Be courteous when disagreeing with others. It is possible to disagree without being insulting. Harassment based on sexual orientation, gender, race, religious views or similar is strictly forbidden and will result in an immediate ban from the forum.

Trolling, Baiting and Personal attacks are prohibited

Trolling is the word used to describe a post that is deliberately designed for the purpose of angering and insulting the members of the forum community. Posts of this nature are disruptive and do not convey a friendly attitude.

Baiting is when the poster intentionally makes a comment designed to encourage an argument or entice another member to retaliate.

Commonly known as flaming, personal attacks are posts which are designed to personally berate or insult another.

Text in any of the above context, is not beneficial to the community spirit and will not be tolerated.

This announcement is the only warning to be issued for these infractions. I will be instructing our Forum Staff that the following procedure is to be adhered to in the event of a personal attack:

1. Post to be deleted
2. User given 24 hour cooling off period where they will not have access to the forum
3. If after these 24 hours the user re-offends, this cooling off period will extend to 7 days
4. There is no reason to think that anyone would continue to offend further

The bottom line is this:

Heated debates and discussions are fine, but personal attacks are not tolerated.

I would also like to ask that those members that 'enjoy' encouraging the escalation of heated discussions by 'egging' on other members please refrain from doing this. This is contributing to tension and has resulted in arguments being blown out of proportion.

Thank you for your time in reading this post. I am disappointed that I even have to take it to this level, but I hope that those few members that have caused problems in the past will move forward and help contribute to our community in a more positive manner.

And for those haters that think they have free speech and can say what they like, think again. In Australia we don't have a bill of rights and the only 'free speech' we have is the ability to discuss politics without the fear of retribution.

I welcome positive and structured discussion below. Anything other than that will be removed.

[spastic]

thankyou for taking a closer look in to what i have thought as a rather fast rising problem and hope from here it sorts out better i don't come into this forum to read about who is better then who but come here to chat with friends get help on car ideas and just generally be the petrol head that i am.

[Ranton]

Cheers ATH...

Dont want to see this place slide in to the boggy depths of the internet

[Doug_MPS6]

A good move - I moderate another site and after numerous attempts at reasonableness and mediation have given up, and now I simply dump without further explanation any posts that transgress the bounds of decency or polite interraction between members. I don't even edit them now as it takes too much of my voluntary time. If grown people can't learn to write and communicate well enough to avoid giving offence, then we don't need them here, and in any event they could well spend their time back at a school for human relations. Cheers.

[blackbetty]

Thanks Rowan, things have definately got way out of hand lately and it was starting to move towards a place Im sure no-one intended it of being

[240MPS]

Great work guys

[TheJunglist]

nice work rowan

[Jmac]

Cant we all just be friends?

No one wants the posts to be over moderated, and lots of members have been given benefit of the doubt, but there are always a few members that want to wreck it for everyone else.

We definitely dont want to become like the american forums!!

Well said Ro.

[YOU LOSE]

Thank you Rowan it is good to put all this behind us and move on I fully agree with your actions !!
Col

[Brackaus]

Yeah I'm cool for this, Personal attacks don't belong here. I'm totally fine for a joke no and then but have also noticed some pretty harsh comments. Fair enough,

Oh Arm, The link on the main page eg (the administrator wants you to read this thread) didn't work for me? it just kept saying page cannot be displayed, I had to do a manual search through the servers to find it.

Cheers.

[armthehomeless]

Yeah I'm cool for this, Personal attacks don't belong here. I'm totally fine for a joke no and then but have also noticed some pretty harsh comments. Fair enough,

Oh Arm, The link on the main page eg (the administrator wants you to read this thread) didn't work for me? it just kept saying page cannot be displayed, I had to do a manual search through the servers to find it.

Cheers.

Weird. Did you click where it said "here."

[AlanC]

Well said Rowan, and all I have to say to these people is

[Street Road Laino]

I can still attack dangas cant i

[Brackaus]

Weird. Did you click where it said "here."

yeah, and it went to a php error page.

I had to manually add "forum" between the subpages to get the link to work.

Maybe i'm special.!

[armthehomeless]

yeah, and it went to a php error page.

I had to manually add "forum" between the subpages to get the link to work.

Maybe i'm special.!

I'll suss it out, cheers.

I've just disabled the compulsory reading of the thread.

[shakespeare]

Thanks Rowan for posting this!

One of the reasons I frequently visit the forum is for the friendly exchange of ideas and information, this has assisted me in numerous ways for which I'm grateful. I maintain strong relationship with my friends outside the forum, but am also pleased that I have established some strong friendships here too! This would not have probably happened if this forum was like some others that are quite off putting when reading through posts! So in saying I am proud to be part of the community which encourages ideas and exchange of knowledge, it's ok to disagree sometimes, but it's not ok when you're rude or nasty and why bother being like that it's a waste of engery! Anwyay thanks everyone for helping make this place somewhere I like to come back too

[Hobi]

Here here..... well said....

[DISIMS3]

Weird. Did you click where it said "here."

'here' wasn't highlighted. I had trouble working it out too.

Were all friends here!

[MISSMPS]

[armthehomeless]

'here' wasn't highlighted. I had trouble working it out too.

Were all friends here!

All good. I turned it off...I just hope everyone reads it. Might send it out.